Ally McCoist begs Rangers to swerve Celtic 'paranoia' and slaps Michael Nicholson down for playing a 'dangerous game'
Ally McCoist urged Rangers not to become paranoid over refereeing decisions like Celtic as he shut down talk of a conspiracy against his old club - and took a swipe at Parkhead chief Michael Nicholson.
The Ibrox strike legend was in the stand at Hampden as the Light Blues were denied an extra time penalty in their Premier Sports Cup final defeat to Celtic which SFA refs chief Willie Collum has now admitted was an unacceptable decision from VAR duo Alan Muir and Frank Connor.
McCoist admitted it was a howler from the officials in Clydesdale House as they failed to spot Liam Scales’ pull on Vaclav Cerny continuing into the box but wants Rangers and new CEO Patrick Stewart, who fired off a letter to Hampden chiefs on day one of his new post to demand answers, to accept it now and move on.
At the height of the 62-year-old’s playing days during the 1990s, Celtic earned the reputation for being paranoid over officials and former chairman John Reid implied historical institutional bias against the Hoops in a letter to the SFA in 2010 when he said: “We won't be treated as less than anyone else. Those days are gone.” That came after Dougiegate when former referee Dougie McDonald was found to have lied to ex Celtic boss Neil Lennon.
And at last year’s Celtic AGM, chief executive Nicholson was asked about issues in a Celtic match against St Mirren with one shareholder querying, “What should happen if a referee and VAR misses a key decision?”. The Hoops chief quipped: “Penalty Rangers.”
And in an exclusive interview with Record Sport, McCoist said of Gers’ next move as the fallout from Sunday’s controversy continues: “Rangers can’t do anything else. They have to accept it. You have to make your feelings known, which they are well within their rights to do, but they can’t do any more. Officials get punished and miss a game and the SFA have acknowledged the error.
“But Rangers shouldn’t even go down the road of questioning the integrity of officials. If we do that then the game is gone. Michael Nicholson last year went on about VAR and all that sort of stuff. It’ s a dangerous game when you go down that road and questioning the integrity of officials.
“We used to accuse Celtic of paranoia when they wrote and complained to the SFA over the years. Michael Nicholson made that quip and was probably trying to get a clap from the audience but you can’t be saying that. There was a time back in the day when Celtic were accused of paranoia and there will be a train of thought that some refereeing decisions are going against Rangers and for Celtic BECAUSE of that. But that’s not the case.
“Referees and officials will make honest mistakes. It was a howler on Sunday but we need to move on. I genuinely believe the officials are doing their best. I think the standard is bang average at best but there’s no way we can start picking and choosing officials. It’s not on. You can have a moan because they got it wrong, 100 per cent, and they have been stood down for the weekend.
“Rangers fans, correctly by the way, feel aggrieved because that’s not the only decision. You go back to Kemar Roofe’s goal at Ibrox, Morelos goal at Celtic Park and all that stuff. These are decisions that just go against you. They are wrong decisions but you have to take them on the chin.”
McCoist was at Hampden on Sunday and said of the controversial moment: “I was up the Rangers end, the other end, but big Argyll (McCoist’s son) said to me it was a penalty.
"He was a million miles away and I said with the greatest respect the referee is 15 yards away.
“I still don’t blame the referee at all. He had a good game. But this is the problem - you can accept the referee making a mistake. Of course we’ll have a moan about it, we always do, but we can’t accept people getting paid to do a job and watching it seven, eight or nine times and getting it completely wrong. This is my problem with VAR.
“I don’t have a problem with the referee because like players, managers and coaches we all make mistakes. Effectively John Beaton made a mistake with that decision but there’s no way you could criticise him because the vast majority thought it was out of the box but he needs help.
“I don’t know, for the life of me, what the VAR boys, Alan Muir and Frank Connor, were watching or thinking. The only way they couldn’t have got John Beaton over is because they’ve completely overlooked it. It’s a penalty that should have been given and it’s a shame we’re talking about it when it was a great game.”
**Ally McCoist was speaking on behalf of talksportbet.com
